California thrash metal pioneers DARK ANGEL performed their entire second album, 1986’s “Darkness Descends”, during their headlining concert Sunday night (June 8) at the Underworld in London, United Kingdom.
The band’s setlist was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:
01. Time Does Not Heal
02. Never To Rise Again
03. Extinction-Level Event
04. No One Answers
05. Circular Firing Squad
06. Darkness Descends
07. The Burning Of Sodom
08. Hunger Of The Undead
09. Merciless Death
10. Death Is Certain (Life Is Not)
11. Black Prophecies
12. Perish In Flames
Fan-filmed video of the entire performance can be seen below.
Earlier this month, DARK ANGEL released “Circular Firing Squad”, the second single from the band’s first new album in 34 years, “Extinction Level Event”, due later in 2025 via Reversed Records.
The LP’s first single, the “Extinction Level Event” title track, was written by DARK ANGEL guitarist Jim Durkin a decade ago, long before he suffered from severe liver disease, and, to the surprise of everyone, passed away in 2023. It was recorded and mixed at the Armoury Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, executive produced by DARK ANGEL drummer Gene Hoglan, produced and engineered by Rob Shallcross and mixed by Mike Fraser.
Durkin died on March 8, 2023 at the age of 58. An original member of DARK ANGEL, Durkin played on the band’s first three albums โ 1985’s “We Have Arrived”, “Darkness Descends” and 1989’s “Leave Scars” โ before departing the group in 1989. He was part of DARK ANGEL‘s lineup when the band reformed in 2013, and had been playing with them, on and off, ever since.
Prior to his death, Durkin had been sitting out some of DARK ANGEL‘s gigs. He was replaced at the shows by Hoglan‘s wife Laura Christine, who has since joined DARK ANGEL as a permanent member.
The “Extinction Level Event” artwork and layout was designed by Cain Gillis, with concepts by Hoglan.
“Musically, lyrically, and vocally, I’m so stoked about this album,” Hoglan previously said. “I’m really excited about DARK ANGEL right now, and everyone who’s heard the new album is losing their minds. Every time I’d finish a song and send it over to the guys, everybody was, ‘Gene, this is my favorite song!’ ‘No, this is my favorite song!!’ ‘Dude, this is totally my favorite song!!!’ That’s never a bad sign.”
Hoglan and Christine wrote everything except for the title track on “Extinction Level Event”. Other songs set to appear on the effort include “Atavistic”, which is described as “a full-on three-minute thrash metal barrage”, “Woke Up To Blood”, the title of which stemmed from a dog attack, and “Terror Construct”, which Gene wrote about the way the media and corporations team up to spread fear among the masses so they can continue to fill their pockets.
The seeds of “Extinction Level Event” were planted in late 2013 between the time when TESTAMENT stopped touring to work on their new record and Hoglan was scheduled to work on his next major project. After the first batch of writing sessions for “Extinction Level Event”, Hoglan had to put writing for DARK ANGEL on hold until late 2022. With other obligations behind him, Gene laser-focused on DARK ANGEL, listening back to the jams he and Durkin made earlier, and writing more than 10 new songs over the next three months. With a full album of pummeling new songs, Hoglan flew to Vancouver to track the album at the Armory. There, he and his bandmates worked with Rob Shallcross and Mike Fraser, and over a few sessions, DARK ANGEL had recorded everything but the vocals.
Having passed away two years ago, Durkin‘s sudden death is still traumatic for DARK ANGEL and especially Hoglan. At the same time, he takes bittersweet pride in knowing that Jim‘s playing and performances live on through him and DARK ANGEL, not only when the band plays his old riffs, but also in the continued influence Durkin has on the band’s new songs.
“One of the last things I told him was, ‘Jim, dude, you’re my original guitar hero,” Hoglan recalls. “‘My entire guitar style is based on your style because you are who I really learned how to play guitar from.’ So, my guitar approach with DARK ANGEL is Jim Durkin‘s approach. When I write for the band, I’m thinking, ‘What would Jim do here?’ That’s why his presence is massively all over this new record. Every single song. I wanted to make it to where people are like, ‘Yeah, Jim wrote that riff. Oh, there’s another Jim riff’ because Jim wrote all the best riffs in the band, forever.”
DARK ANGEL was originally scheduled to play new music for the first time since 1991 during its January 29 concert at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California. However, that show ended up getting postponed due to the wildfires in the state.
DARK ANGEL released two albums with Don Doty on vocals โ the aforementioned “We Have Arrived” and “Darkness Descends” โ before he exited the group and was replaced by Ron Rinehart (after a brief stint with Jim Drabos in 1987). The band issued two more studio LPs โ “Leave Scars” and “Time Does Not Heal” โ before calling it quits in 1992.
